In a world beset by extreme and unconscionable health disparities humankind desperately needs a new vision to ensure central health capabilities for all. Yawing gaps in health law, dangerous contagions that can circle our globalized planet in hours, and a bewildering confusion of health systems are all profound challenges requiring urgent address. Global Health Justice and Governance presents the critical problems facing the world today and offers a new theory of justice and governance as a way to resolve these seemingly intractable issues. A fundamental responsibility of government is to ensure human flourishing. The central role that health plays in this flourishing place a unique claim on our public institutions and resources, as central health capabilities are pressed to reduce premature death and prevent avoidable morbidities. In a world of staggering inequalities, imperiling epidemics, and inadequacies of current models a new architecture of central health systems is desperately needed. Global Health Justice and Governance lays out a vision for achieving this important change.

Jennifer Prah Ruger is a leading scholar of global and domestic health policy and public health. She is currently the Amartya Sen Professor of Public Health Equity, Economics, and Policy; Associate Dean for Global Studies; and Faculty Chair at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ruger has authored over 100 publications and is internationally recognized for her leadership and work, which has been cited by the United Nations, World Bank, World Health Organization and United States Government.

The 2018 HDCA Program Committee cordially invites scholars, government policy makers, practitioners and other interested parties from all over the world to participate in the 2018 HDCA conference. Original empirical research, theoretical issues, case-studies or reports of experiences, or findings from major research projects, and book panels relevant to conference theme or more broadly related to human development/capabilities approach will be presented.

Please use the conference menu on the right to find more information. The conference organizers can be contacted at hdca2018@uca.edu.ar.

Privacy Policy

HDCA respects your privacy and will not sell or share information collected. Our payments are processed through First Data which is a secure payment processor for businesses.

Refund Policy

Conference registration and payment will open up to 5 months in advance of the conference and registration will not be complete until payment has been received. Once payment has been processed, you will receive an email with confirmation. Registration will close once all available spots have been filled. All registrations are final. No refunds will be issued, unless there are extenuating circumstances (e.g. serious illness or death of close relative). Requests for refunds must be received prior to the start of the conference. There are no refunds for payments of membership dues.

Conference Theme

“Human Development and Social Inclusion in an Urbanizing World”

Today more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas and the share is expected to reach 66 per cent by 2050. While the intense social, cultural and economic interaction implied by the agglomeration of people in cities offers diverse benefits for human and economic development it also poses numerous challenges. Social fragmentation, spatial segregation and the widespread growth of informal settlements, or slums, reflect the persistence of social and economic inequality in the context of the expansion of cities. The rapid demographic shifts and resulting urban sprawl, coupled with the environmental stresses caused by cities, hinder the adequate provision of public services and effective urban governance. The recent flow of immigrants from poor and unstable countries to the cities of developed nations present new obstacles to economic, social and cultural participation in the Global North. All of these trends challenge governments and society as a whole to find new ways to foster human development and social inclusion for all.

Latin America, as the most unequal and urbanized region of the world, with the largest concentration of megacities, is a particularly relevant place to host the conference. Issues such as residential segregation, urban inequality, social marginalization and exclusion, violence, addictions, environmental degradation, among others, have acquired particular relevance in the region and their origins are rooted not only in the urbanization process but also complex historical, political and cultural factors. The continent also has produced relevant innovations in the design of social safety nets (for example, conditional cash transfers) and policies to foster urban integration.

The 2018 Conference theme proposes to analyse these urban issues through the lens of the capability approach and human development framework and in light of global experiences. It will examine how the approach can provide innovative tools and criteria to assess quality of life and how its conditions are distributed in the context of cities. The conference will also examine how the capability approach can contribute to critically thinking on how to design adequate policies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, especially goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. It can also frame the discussion on how to address the Urban Agenda set out by UN-Habitat III: 1) ending poverty in all its forms and dimensions by ensuring equal rights and opportunities, socio-economic and cultural diversity, integration in the urban space; 2) achieving sustainable and inclusive urban economies by promoting full and productive employment and decent work for all and 3) promoting environmental sustainability, by promoting clean energy, sustainable use of land and resources in urban development.

Host Information/Committees

The 2018 HDCA Conference is hosted by hosted by the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA) in collaboration with FLACSO-Argentina in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The organizers can be reached at hdca2018@uca.edu.ar.

August 15, 2018 – Final deadline for conference registration at standard rates

Keynote Speakers

Ravi Kanbur, Cornell University“Urbanization: A Disaggregation”Ravi Kanbur researches and teaches in development economics, public economics and economic theory. He is well known for his role in policy analysis and engagement in international development. He has served on the senior staff of the World Bank including as Chief Economist for Africa. He has also published in the leading economics journals, including Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory and Economic Journal.

He is President of the Human Development and Capabilities Association, Chair of the Board of United Nations University-World Institute for Development Economics Research, Co-Chair of the Scientific Council of the International Panel on Social Progress, member of the OECD High Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance, Past-President of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, past member of the High Level Advisory Council of the Climate Justice Dialogue, and past-member of the Core Group of the Commission on Global Poverty.

Santiago Levy, Interamerican Development BankUl Haq Memorial Lecture“Informality and Social Inclusion”Santiago Levy is the Vice-President for Sectors and Knowledge at the Inter-American Development Bank, and before that Chief Economist. Previously, he was General Director at the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) from December 2000 to October 2005. From 1994 to 2000, Levy served as the Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico, becoming the main architect of the renowned social program Progresa-Oportunidades that benefits the poor. He holds a Ph.D. in economics and a Masters in political economy from Boston University. He was a post-doctoral fellow at Cambridge University. Mr. Levy has advised several governments and international organizations and has held several teaching positions, including faculty positions at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo of Mexico and Boston University, where he was Associate Professor and Director of the Institute for Economic Development. He is the author of at least 80 articles, monographs and book chapters on such diverse subjects as poverty reduction, competitiveness, foreign exchange policy, export imbalances, pricing, microeconomics and energy. His paper Poverty in Mexico won the 1992 National Research Prize in Economics awarded by the Bank of Mexico. His recent published books are: No Growth without Equity? Inequality, Interests and Competition in Mexico (edited with Michael Walton), Palgrave-Macmillan and the World Bank, 2009; Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes: Social Policy, Informality, and Economic Growth in Mexico, Brookings Institution Press, 2008; Progress Against Poverty: Sustaining Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades Program, Brookings Institution Press, 2006; Sin Herencia de Pobreza, Editorial Planeta, 2005 (with Evelyne Rodríguez); and Ensayos sobre el Desarrollo Económico y Social de México, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico, 2004.

Alejandro Portes, Princeton UniversityAmartya Sen LectureAlejandro Portes is Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Sociology (emeritus) at Princeton University and Professor of Law and Distinguished Scholar of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami. He is the founding director of the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton. Formerly, he taught at Johns Hopkins University, where he held the John Dewey Chair in Arts and Sciences; Duke University, and the University of Texas-Austin. In 1997, he was elected president of the American Sociological Association and served in that capacity in 1998-99. Born in Havana, Cuba, he came to the United States in 1960. He was educated at the University of Havana, Catholic University of Argentina, and Creighton University. He received his M. A. and Ph. D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Portes is the author of more than 250 articles and chapters on national development, international migration, Latin American and Caribbean urbanization, and economic sociology. He has published 40 books and special issues. His books and articles have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese. Ten volumes of his collected essays have been published in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. His most recent articles have appeared in the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, International Migration Review, Population and Development Review, and the British Journal of Sociology. His current research is on the adaptation process of the immigrant second generation in comparative perspective, the role of institutions on national development, and the comparative study of immigrant transnational organizations. Portes is a former fellow of the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences and of the Russell Sage Foundation.

Avner De-Shalit, Hebrew University of Jerusalem“Cities, Immigrants and Having a Sense of Place”Avner de Shalit is the Max Kampelman Professor of Democracy and Human Rights at the department of political science, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Since his D.Phil. in Oxford (1990) he has been working on environmental philosophy, urban political theory, and issues of poverty and inequality. He is the author of eight books, among them Why Posterity Matters (Routledge), The Environment: Between Theory and Practice (Oxford UP), Disadvantage (Oxford UP, co-authored with Jonathan Wolff), The Spirit of Cities (Princeton UP, co-authored with Daniel Bell), and most recently Cities and Immigration (Oxford UP, forthcoming). Avner served as head of department and also as dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Hebrew University. In 2014 he was awarded the Rothschild Prize in the Social Sciences. In Israel he has been politically active in social and environmental issues, and also in campaigning for the political rights of Palestinians.

Ingrid Robeyns, Utrecht UniversityWhat, if anything, is wrong with being super-rich?
Ingrid Robeyns is president-elect of the Human Development and Capability Association and holds the chair in ethics of institutions at Utrecht University. Trained in economics and philosophy, she works on questions of social and distributive justice, applied to a wide area of issues, including in the areas of gender, disability, global inequalities, and environmental concerns. She is currently directing a 5-year project on the question whether there should be upper limits to how many economic and ecological resources each person should be allowed to appropriate. She has also published widely on the (theoretical foundations of) the capability approach, most recently in her Open Access book Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice (Open Book Publishers 2017). More details can be found at www.ingridrobeyns.info.

Fernando Calderón is a Sociologist from the University of Chile, has a Master’s in Social Sciences from FLACSO and a Doctorate in Sociology from L’Ecole des Hautes Ètudes in Paris. He is currently Simon Bolivar Chair at the University of Cambridge (2017/2018), Director of the Program “Innovation, Development and Multiculturalism” at the National University of San Martin (Argentina), professor of Human Development at FLACSO-Argentina and at the University of Córdoba, Argentina. He has taught at several universities in the United States (Austin, Chicago, Berkeley, and Cornell), Europe (University of Barcelona, Open University of Catalonia), and Latin America (in Bolivia, Mexico, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Chile). He was Executive Secretary of Latin American Social Science Council (CLACSO), Social Policy Adviser of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and Special Adviser on Human Development and Governance for the United Nations Development Program. He was Coordinator and Senior Adviser in over ten Human Development Reports in several countries of Latin America, Europe and Africa, at national, sub-regional and global levels. In 2000 and 2002, the Bolivian Human Development Reports, which he coordinated, received global awards. He has authored 23 books and edited 34 volumes on democracy, culture and development.

Sonia Fleury is a Psychologist from the Universidad Federal de Minas Gerais, has a Master’s in Health Sociology and a Doctorate in Political Science from the Instituto Universitario de Pesquisas of Río de Janeiro, Universidad Cándido Mendes, Brazil. She works on topics related to the construction of democracies, citizenship, social rights, social security and social protection, the reform of social systems in Latin America, subjectivity and exclusion, among others. She has been a professor at the Universidad Federal de Minas Gerais, professor and researcher at the National School of Public Health of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation and professor at the Institute of Economic and Social Development of the Interamerican Development Bank, the Brazilian School of Public Administration and of the Getulio Vargas Foundation. She has also been a visiting professor and lecturer at several universities in Latin America and Europe. She has authored 12 books, 70 book chapters and 134 articles on democracy and social policy.

Javier Iguiñez Echeverría is an Electrical Engineer from the Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria (Peru), has a Master’s of Science in Economic Sciences from Iowa State University and a PhD in Economics from the New School for Social Research. He is emeritus professor and teaches in the Department of Economics at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru. He currently is Executive Secretary of the Acuerdo Nacional and president of the Instituto de Desarrollo Humano de America Latina (IDHAL). He has published around thirty books and numerous articles. The most recent ones include: “Derechos Humanos y pobreza extrema: distancias y acercamientos”; “La verdad nos hace libres. Sobre las relaciones entre filosofía, derechos humanos, religión y universidad”; “Inclusiones y desarrollo humano: relaciones, agencia, poder”; “The Muldimensionality of Poverty”; y “Poder, rigor y efectividad de una idea: el caso de la informalidad de los pobres”.

José Nun is a lawyer and specialist in economic development (University of Buenos Aires) with postgraduate degrees in sociology and political science (University of Paris). He has been an adjunct professor at the University of California at Berkeley, project director at ILPES/CEPA and the Instituto Di Tella, professor at the University of Chile and FLACSO-Mexico and during 1970-1993 professor of political science at the University of Toronto, Canada. Since 1984 he has been a senior researcher of CONICET. He created the Latin American Center for the Analysis of Democracy (Buenos Aires) and in 1998 founded the Institute of Higher Social Studies at the National University of San Martin (Buenos Aires), where he directs the doctoral program in sociology. He also chairs the Foundation of Higher Social Studies. Between 2004 and 2009 he was Secretary of Culture of the National Government of Argentina. He received a Guggenheim scholarship, an honorable doctorate from the National University of San Martin, the Order of the Liberator Bernardo O’Higgins, an Honorable Mention from the National Senate of Argentina, among others. His published books include: América Latina: la crisis hegemónica y el golpe militar (1969); La marginalidad en América Latina (1969) ; (con J. C. Portantiero) La transición democrática en la Argentina (1987) ; La rebelión del coro (1989); Crisis económica y despidos en masa (1989); El gobierno de Alfonsín y las corporaciones agrarias (1991); Marginalidad y exclusión social (2001); La desigualdad y los impuestos (2011); Democracia: ¿gobierno del pueblo o gobierno de los políticos? (2010; ed. rev. 2015); and El sentido común y la política (2015).

Plenary panel on Urbanization/slum upgrading experiences

Conference Progam

Information to come

Pre-conference Events

All pre-conference events will take place on Wednesday, August 29, 2018.

Are you a postgraduate student trying to organize and analyze your empirical qualitative data? If so, this workshop will be a great way to meet and work with other students who are trying to operationalize the Capability Approach. In this half-day workshop, postgraduate students will have a forum that will be both instructive and interactive. We will begin the workshop with an established academic presenting a case study of how he/she has analyzed his/her own data and learn how he/she has operationalized the CA.

The second part will allow you time to work with another postgraduate student under the guidance of our expert to present your qualitative data analysis strategies and figure out how you might best proceed through data analysis. Working with another postgraduate student will give you time to practice imagining the operationalization of the CA in your data analysis. We expect this workshop to help you proceed, giving you confidence and experience in handling your data and moving forward in your analysis and write up processes.

9:30am – 6pmEthics and Development in Times of Growing AuthoritarianismTucumán 1966, FLACSO

This event will explore a set of problems and topics relevant to the ethics of development in Latin America and other regions. The program is available here. It will begin with a lecture by Prof. Maristella Svampa (Universidad Nacional de La Plata) titled “Neo-extractivism, social-environmental conflicts and new forms of dependence in Latin America”, followed by a workshop on “Poverty and Philosophy: a Latin American perspective”. The event will conclude with the launch of the Routledge Handbook of Development Ethics, edited by Jay Drydyk and Lori Keleher. The Handbook is a tremendous collective accomplishment by an extensive network of contributors, both from HDCA and from the International Development Ethics Association (IDEA). The central idea is that the differences between good development and bad development are value-based. The values that define good development include well-being, equity or social/global justice, agency and empowerment, environmental sustainability, advancement of human rights, cultural freedom, and responsibility/integrity. This session includes two roundtable discussions by contributors to the Handbook. In the first, panelists will discuss what development ethics is, and how the capability approach has contributed to it. In the second, panelists will consider how development ethics and the capability approach should respond to the development model of ‘competitive authoritarianism’.

The event is free of charge and open to the general public as well as to HDCA Conference participants. We especially encourage the participation of graduate students and members of minority groups. Lunch and refreshments will be provided throughout the day.

The Escuela Mecanica de la Armada (ESMA) was one of the main clandestine detention centers for the last civilian-military dictatorship which ruled Argentina between 1976 and 1983. Since 2004, its grounds were transformed into a Remembrance and human rights Centre where activities are organized with the purpose of preserving the memory and promoting human rights. We are planning a group visit with English-speaking guide from the Centre. Admission is free. For more information: http://www.espaciomemoria.ar/descargas/diptico_english.pdf

Depending on your interest, we will also organize a roundtable with professionals working on the intersection between human rights and human development with a focus on economic, social and cultural rights. This would take place in the afternoon of August 29.

In the first part of this workshop organized by the Children and Youth Thematic Group will analyze the complex mechanisms through which territorial inequalities may influence children nutrition and their capability of staying healthy. We will address the following questions: What types of achieved functionings are part of people’s capability of being healthy? What types of interlocking connections were identified by researchers and practitioners as key to accessing opportunities to break the health inequalities that affect children? This session will open a discussion regarding the programs and policies on children nutrition that could improve the existing or future interventions that aim at advancing health and welfare of children and youth in socioeconomically unequal territories. Then, in the second part of this workshop, we will facilitate an exchange of views between scholars and practitioners with respect to the implementation policies of new health programs for children. We will discuss the challenges of targeting children and youth using incentives and motivations, as well as the novelties in the communication process that supports the delivery of health programs. The following question will guide this discussion: How large are the functioning gaps and capabilities of breaking the barriers or shifting the events/factors that have driven children malnutrition in territories with an elevated level of territorial inequality in terms of resources and opportunities?

The Latin American and Caribbean Association for the Study of Human Capabilities (Asociación Latinoamericana y de El Caribe para el Estudio del Enfoque de las Capacidades Humanas – ALCADECA) is an HDCA regional network that gathers Latin American researchers and practitioners interested in the human development and capability approach. The main purpose of this pre-conference workshop is to create a space for dialogue among ALCADECA members and other HDCA colleagues in order to increase the Association’s outreach to other researchers interested in Latin America and attend the HDCA meeting in Buenos Aires. Our hope is that this pre-conference workshop will strengthen the Latin American regional network of HDCA. In particular, the pre-conference workshop will address three specific goals: (i) facilitate a dialogue around recent experiences, opportunities and challenges related to the human development and the capability approach in Latin America and The Caribbean, (ii) discuss preliminary ideas about the main theme, program and organizational aspects of ALCADECA 2019, and (iii) validate the first version of the Regional Directory of Human Development Researchers in Latin America (DHAL-Net) that is being prepared by IDHAL-PUCP.

The HDCA Health & Disability Thematic group is pleased to invite you to the launch of Jennifer Prah Ruger’s book Global HealthJustice and Governance. The author’s presentation will be followed by a roundtable with discussants and a Q&A session.

In a world beset by extreme and unconscionable health disparities humankind desperately needs a new vision to ensure central health capabilities for all. Yawing gaps in health law, dangerous contagions that can circle our globalized planet in hours, and a bewildering confusion of health systems are all profound challenges requiring urgent address. Global Health Justice and Governance presents the critical problems facing the world today and offers a new theory of justice and governance as a way to resolve these seemingly intractable issues. A fundamental responsibility of government is to ensure human flourishing. The central role that health plays in this flourishing place a unique claim on our public institutions and resources, as central health capabilities are pressed to reduce premature death and prevent avoidable morbidities. In a world of staggering inequalities, imperiling epidemics, and inadequacies of current models a new architecture of central health systems is desperately needed. Global Health Justice and Governance lays out a vision for achieving this important change.

Jennifer Prah Ruger is a leading scholar of global and domestic health policy and public health. She is currently the Amartya Sen Professor of Public Health Equity, Economics, and Policy; Associate Dean for Global Studies; and Faculty Chair at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ruger has authored over 100 publications and is internationally recognized for her leadership and work, which has been cited by the United Nations, World Bank, World Health Organization and United States Government.

6:30pm – 8:30pmBook launch of the Latin American Human Development textbookTucumán 1966, FLACSO

ALCADECA will launch the textbook on human development in Latin America, titled Introducción al Enfoque de las Capacidades: Aportes para el Desarrollo Humano en América Latina, co-published by the editorial PUCP (Lima, Peru) and Manantial-FLACSO Argentina, and edited by Severine Deneulin, Jhonatan Clausen and Areli Valencia. The event will include a panel with three invited discussants, followed by a reception. The event will be entirely in Spanish.

Introducción al Enfoque de las Capacidades: Aportes para el Desarrollo Humano en América Latina is a Spanish translation and Latin American adapted version of the textbook An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach published in 2009. Each of the translated original chapters is accompanied by an additional chapter which treats the topic from a Latin American perspective. The chapter on education has a companion chapter on education and social justice in Latin America, the one on democracy has a companion chapter on inequality and populism, and the chapter on equity and justice has an annex chapter on relational egalitarianism and the transmission of injustice in the Latin American context. There are also new chapters on collective capabilities, the measurement of multi-dimensional poverty in Latin America, buen vivir and sustainability, economic growth and income equality, and an analysis of conditional cash transfers from a human development perspective.

Registration, fees & scholarships, visa information

Students and scholars from low- and mid-income countries will pay a significantly reduced registration fee, as the following schedule indicates. The early rates are available through June 15, after which standard rates will apply:

Professional, high-income country, early ($380)

Professional, high-income country, standard ($430)

Professional, low- or mid-income country, early ($190)

Professional, low- or mid-income country, standard ($240)

Student, high-income country, early ($190)

Student, high-income country, standard ($240)

Student, low- or mid-income country, early ($90)

Student, low- or mid-income country, standard ($130)

Please note that the registration fee provides a year’s membership in the HDCA, which includes a year’s subscription to the Journal of Human Development & Capabilities.

The HDCA has limited funds to provide some support for young scholars (35 or under) to attend this year’s conference. Scholarships have an upper limit of $1,000 and average $500. If you are interested in receiving a scholarship please indicate this when you submit your abstract for review (deadline 15th February). As there are many scholars who are interested in receiving funds we request that people only apply if obtaining a scholarship will make the difference between attending or not.

Accommodations

The 2018 HDCA Conference will be held at the campus of the Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA), located at Alicia Moreau de Justo 1300, Puerto Madero, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The conference organizers have obtained discounted rates at each of the following hotels through the travel agency TTS VIAJES. We suggest that you stay at one of the suggested hotels close to the UCA because transportation in the area has been reduced due to a large road construction project. Also note that, since the hotels are located in walking distance from the university, daily transport will not be provided between the hotels and the conference venue.

To obtain these special rates, please contact by phone or email, indicating the Reference Code: 2018 HDCA Conference:

The peso is the Argentine official currency. There are 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 peso notes and 1 and 2-peso coins, as well as 10, 25 and 50-cent

You must show your passport to change money at banks and official exchange bureaus.

Banking hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Very few exchange bureaus open over the weekends. These are mainly located in the Recoleta district and along Florida Street and, in general, have similar timetables to banks (i.e. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.).

We do not recommend changing money in the streets or in cabs since people report having received counterfeit money.

Banks/ATMs at airports

There is a Banco Nación branch office at Terminal A, Ministro Pistarini “Ezeiza” International Airport (round the clock).

There are also Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) from which you can draw local currency.

Transportation

Travel Information

Entry requirements

Passport: valid passport, with or without a visa, according to each case. Participants are responsible for carrying out the process of securing their own visas, and for doing so in a timely fashion.

Participants from non-neighbouring countries are exempted from paying taxes on new articles worth up to USD 300, and are allowed an additional USD 300 for products purchased at the Duty Free Shops authorized to operate across Argentina.

Arrival in Buenos Aires

The city has two international airports:

EZE-Ministro Pistarini “Ezeiza” International Airport: most of the airline companies flying into Argentina land here, a 37km drive from the city, along Teniente General Ricchieri highway.

AEP-Jorge Newbery Airport: flights from MERCOSUR neighbouring countries usually land at this airport, which is nearby downtown Buenos Aires.

Should you have any questions on flights leaving from/arriving at the airport, please call: (54 11) 5480 6111 or check the website: www.aa2000.com.ar

HDCA Summer School

We are pleased to announce that this year’s HDCA Summer School will take place on Monday 27 August and Tuesday 28 August 2018 ahead of the annual conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The summer school aims to develop participants’ knowledge and understanding of key concepts in human development with a particular focus on the capability approach. The summer school will be led by the HDCA Summer School Team including, Caroline Sarojini Hart, Sridhar Venkatapuram and Graciela Tonon, together with further special guest tutors. The two-day programme will include sessions on the nature of human development; foundational concepts in human development and the capability approach; inequalities and capabilities; education; health and communities. There will also be workshop style sessions on developing research methods with opportunities for participants to present and discuss their own research projects and ideas. Accepted participants will be given pre-course preparation to do ahead of the summer school. All sessions will be in English.

Summer School Eligibility

The programme is specifically aimed at doctoral students and post-doctoral scholars who already have some understanding of development issues and are currently working with the capability approach. To be eligible for the 2018 HDCA summer school you need to be a current doctoral student or postdoctoral researcher (within 2 years of receiving doctorate) working with the capability approach. You must also be attending the main HDCA conference in Buenos Aires (separate registration required). If you have any queries about your suitability for the summer school please email the Education Officer, Caroline Hart at c.hart@sheffield.ac.uk for clarification.

Venue

The summer school will take place at Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA), Buenos Aires, Argentina. The programme will start at 9.30am on Monday 27 August and finish with the Summer School Dinner on Tuesday 28 August around 9pm.

Transport

For information about how to reach the University campus and for transport from the airports please see HDCA 2018 conference webpages at www.hd-ca.org.

Accommodation

For suggestions about accommodation please see the HDCA 2018 conference website. If you are interested in sharing accommodation with other summer school participants please indicate this on your registration.

Registration

The cost of the summer school will be US$70 and places will be allocated on a first come first served basis on receipt of payment and registration.To register for the 2018 HDCA Summer School you will need to complete the online registration process, including payment. Please click here to register.

The registration fee includes participation in the two-day programme, refreshments, two lunches and one evening meal as well as course materials. It does not include travel or accommodation costs so participants will need to budget accordingly. There is a wide range of accommodation available locally and good transport systems at reasonable cost. You may need to travel a considerable distance to secure low cost accommodation and should take this into account when making travel arrangements.

If you are awarded a scholarship for this year’s main HDCA conference you will be eligible for up to US$100 towards your accommodation costs for attending the summer school (payable following summer school registration).

Please note summer school places are limited and usually book up very quickly. Priority will be given to students who have not previously attended an HDCA summer school.

2017 HDCA Conference – Cape Town, South Africa

with University of the Free State, University of the Western Cape and the Human Sciences Research Council

The 2017 HDCA Program Committee cordially invites scholars, government policy makers, practitioners and other interested parties from all over the world to participate in the 2017 HDCA conference. Original empirical research, theoretical issues, case-studies or reports of experiences, or findings from major research projects, and book panels relevant to conference theme or more broadly related to human development/capabilities approach will be presented.

Please use the conference menu on the right to find more information. The conference organizers can be contacted at hdca.conference@uct.ac.za

Privacy Policy

HDCA respects your privacy and will not sell or share information collected. Our payments are processed through First Data which is a secure payment processor for businesses.

Refund Policy

Conference registration and payment will open up to 5 months in advance of the conference and all registration must be complete by the start of conference. Registration will close once all available spots have been filled. Once registration is complete, your payment will be processed. You will receive email with confirmation. All registrations are final. No refunds will be issued, unless there are extenuating circumstances (e.g. serious illness or death of close relative). There are no refunds for payments of membership dues.

Conference Theme

“Challenging Inequalities: Human Development and Social Change”

Economic inequality is bad for political equality and political freedoms which are key conditions for the expansion and securing of human capabilities and the building of decent and inclusive societies. The conference theme explores this as a dynamic challenge of human development and social change, together with the potential of the capability approach to offer a powerful normative framework to advance justice in unequal societies. The capability approach is now a widely-used framework for evaluating equality and justice in terms of human well-being, freedom, and development. It has been developed partly because traditional approaches focusing only on income or utility do not adequately capture the diverse, plural, and multidimensional nature of human lives and development experiences, nor provide the informational basis of justice in policy making and implementation. As a concept originally developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, capability works to understand and explain inequalities and injustices in the social, political, economic and historical arrangements that shape human experiences, and the valuable functionings that people have reason to choose for flourishing lives.

The capabilities emphasis on plural human freedoms allows us both to examine the experiences of real lives but also to develop methodologies to aggregate and index multiple aspects of human development and capabilities across significant in/equality dimensions (for example, youth, cities, education and social cohesion), viewed and researched from multiple disciplinary perspectives. One of the main goals of the HDCA 2017 Conference will be to assemble and compare a variety of research approaches – theoretical, conceptual, philosophical, methodological, empirical – in global South and global North contexts in order to shed light on the benefits of, and challenges human development and capability expansion confronts.

By selecting ‘challenging inequalities’ and also ‘social change’ as an overall theme for the HDCA 2017 Conference, we want to explore the normative and empirical power and scope of the capability approach to describe, assess, and promote change in the direction of human development and social justice in an increasingly globalized world where people’s circumstances and values are vastly different and in which inequality is rising within and across countries.

The capability approach itself is evolving and open to extensions, modifications, criticisms, and revisions. We would like to invite scholars, policy-makers, practitioners, and students who are working at the frontiers of this expanding field of research. Anyone new to HDCA is of course more than welcome, as we appreciate diversity of participants in terms of research topics and methods, professions, and regions.

This conference is being held at a key and historic moment for the continent and for South Africa – economically, socially and politically – offering the possibility to bring the approach to the attention of wider audiences of researchers, young scholars, practitioners, and policy makers and brokers. It will be an exciting opportunity for all of us to meet for the first time on the African continent.

Call for Papers & Deadlines

April 26, 2017 – Announcement of acceptance/rejection

Extended to July 15, 2017 – Deadline for conference registration at early-bird rates

While formal registration for the conference has closed, we are now offering a day registration rate to individuals and groups who are not able to attend the whole conference but would like to attend some sessions. The rate for individual academics/professionals is R1100 per day.

Keynote Speakers

Martha NussbaumMartha Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. From 1986 to 1993, she was a research advisor at the World Institute for Development Economics Research, Helsinki, a part of the United Nations University. She has chaired the American Philosophical Association’s Committee on International Cooperation, the Committee on the Status of Women, and the Committee for Public Philosophy. She has received honorary degrees from fifty colleges and universities in the world. Her books include Women and Human Development (2000), Hiding from Humanity (2004), Frontiers of Justice (2006), Creating Capabilities (2012), Political Emotions (2013), and Anger and Forgiveness (2016). Among her awards are the Prince of Asturias Prize in the Social Sciences in 2012, and the Kyoto Prize in 2016.

Crain Soudien, CEO, Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)Crain Soudien is the Chief Executive Officer of the Human Sciences Research Council and formerly a Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cape Town where he remains an emeritus professor in Education and African Studies. His publications in the areas of social difference, culture, education policy, comparative education, educational change, public history and popular culture include three books, three edited collections and over 190 articles, reviews, reports, and book chapters.

He is also the co-editor of three books on District Six, Cape Town, a jointly edited book on comparative education and the author of The Making of Youth Identity in Contemporary South Africa: Race, Culture and Schooling, the author of Realising the Dream: Unlearning the Logic of Race in the South African School, and the co-author of Inclusion and Exclusion in South Africa and Indian Schools. He was educated at the University of Cape Town and UNISA, South Africa and holds a PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

He is involved in a number of local, national and international social and cultural organisations and is the Chairperson of the Independent Examinations Board, the former Chairperson of the District Six Museum Foundation, a former President of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies and had been the chair of the Ministerial Committee on Transformation in Higher Education and is currently the chair of the Ministerial Committee to evaluate textbooks for discrimination. He is a fellow of a number of local and international academies and serves on the boards of a number of cultural, heritage, education and civil society structures.

Jayati Ghosh, Amartya Sen lecture
Jayati Ghosh is one of the world’s leading economists. She is professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru university, New Delhi, and the executive secretary of International Development Economics Associates (Ideas), a network of economists critical of the mainstream economic paradigm of neo-liberalism. She previously held positions atTufts UniversityandCambridge University, lecturing meanwhile at academic institutions throughout India. She is one of the founders of theEconomic Research Foundationin New Delhi, anon-profittrust devoted to progressive economic research. She is a regular columnist for several Indian journals and newspapers, a member of the National Knowledge Commission advising the prime minister of India, and is closely involved with a range of progressive organisations and social movements. She has received the NordSud Prize for Social Sciences 2010 of the Fondazione Pescarabruzzo, Italy. She is co-recipient of the International Labour Organisation’s 2010 Decent Work Research prize.

Selim Jahan, Mahbub ul Haq lecture
Mr. Selim Jahan is the Director of the Human Development Report Office (HDRO) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New York. Prior to his appointment to this position, he served as the Director of the Poverty Division of UNDP (2007-2014). Mr. Jahan was the first Deputy Director (1996-2001). He had already served as a Policy Advisor in HDRO from 1992 to 1996. During his time in HDRO, he was a member of the Core Team that authored nine global Human Development Reports (1993-2001).Before joining UNDP in 1992, Dr. Jahan held different positions in universities, national governments and other international organizations. He was a Lecturer of Economics (1974-77) and Professor of Economics and Director of the Economic Research Unit, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh (1984-89). He was a Lecturer, Department of Economics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada (1983-84), and a Visiting Fellow, School Of Public Policy, University of Maryland, U.S.A (1992).Mr. Jahan served as the Economic Adviser, Planning Commission of the Government of Bangladesh (1989-90). He has also worked as an Adviser and Consultant to various international organizations such as ILO, UNDP, UNESCO, and the World Bank during the 1980s and the early 1990s. He was the Secretary General of the Bangladesh Economics Association (1991-92). Mr. Jahan holds a Ph.D. with distinction in Economics from McGill University. He is the author of 10 books and more than 150 articles published in various national and international academic journals. His latest book entitled Overcoming Human Poverty– Essays on the Millennium Development Goals and Beyond was published in 2014

Sabelo J. Ndlovu-GatsheniProfessor, founding Head of Archie Mafeje Research Institute for Applied Social Policy (AMRI) and currently Director for Scholarship at the Change Management Unit (CMU) in the Vice-Chancellor’s Office at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He is also the founder of Africa Decolonial Research Network (ADERN) based at the University of South Africa. He is a National Research Foundation (NRF) rated social scientist; a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf); a Fellow of African Studies Centre (ASC) in the Netherlands; and a Research Associate at the Ferguson Centre for African and Asian Studies at The Open University in the United Kingdom. His has published 13 books, over 50 journal articles and over 40 book chapters. His major publications include The Ndebele Nation: Reflections on Hegemony, Memory and Historiography (Amsterdam & Pretoria: Rosenberg Publishers & UNISA Press, 2009); Do ‘Zimbabweans’ Exist? Trajectories of Nationalism, National Identity Formation and Crisis in a Postcolonial State (Oxford & Bern: Peter Lang International Academic Publishers, 2009); Redemptive or Grotesque Nationalism? Rethinking Contemporary Politics in Zimbabwe (Oxford & Bern: Peter Lang International Academic Publishers, 2011); Empire, Global Coloniality and African Subjectivity (New York & Oxford: Berghahn Books, June 2013); Coloniality of Power in Postcolonial Africa: Myths of Decolonization (Dakar: CODESRIA, 2013); Nationalism and National Projects in Southern Africa: New Critical Reflections (Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa, 2013); Bondage of Boundaries and Identity Politics in Postcolonial Africa: The ‘Northern Problem’ and Ethno-Futures (Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa, 2013); Mugabeism? History, Politics and Power in Zimbabwe (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, August 2015); Decolonizing the University, Knowledge Systems and Disciplines (North Carolina, Carolina Academic Press, April 2016) and The Decolonial Mandela: Peace, Justice and Politics of Life (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, March 2016).

Conference Program

The organisers wish to provide an explanation of the venue choice for this big international event. Ordinarily, the HDCA’s annual conferences are held at universities, during their mid-term or annual breaks. When the bid to host the 2017 conference was awarded, the conference organisers booked venues at UCT. However, one of the consequences of the 2016 student protests was the shifting of the academic calendar, and all non-teaching related venue bookings being de-prioritised in favour of lectures. Given the large numbers that the conference is required to accommodate (350 indivuals in plenary and 11 breakaway sessions), and the timing of the change in the academic calendar, the organisers were unable to secure sufficient parallel venues or a suitable large plenary venue at the other universities in the Western Cape. Moreover, by the time the new term dates were made available, it was too late to secure the other commercial venue that would have been able to accommodate the need for 11large breakaway rooms and one large meeting room – the Westin is in fact one of two facilities in the Western Cape that can accommodate the conference numbers. As a result the conference is being held at the Westin Hotel in Cape Town, and the irony associated with this has not gone unnoticed, given that the theme of the conference is “Challenging Inequalities: Human Development and Social Change”.

From the draft programme you may also note that the names of several of the hotel’s meeting rooms are associated with some individuals who may be considered to be strongly implicated in South Africa’s colonial history. The conference hosts are engaging the hotel about this. The continued use of such names by organisations throughout South Africa highlights the importance of the debates and struggles in this country about decolonization. We have provided alternative names for the venues in the programme based on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Please note: the SDG goals listed are linked to venues. There is NO link with the thematic focus areas for each session. So please do not look at the SDGs when you select the sessions you wish to attend. The SDGs have been included as a symbolic way of contrasting a focus on people associated with colonialism, represented in the names of many of the hotel’s venues, with a focus on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Pre-conference Events

All pre-conference events will take place on Tuesday, September 5, 2017 on the UCT campus, unless otherwise indicated. Information on additional events will be added as it becomes available.

What can we learn from African Political Philosophies, and ‘Ubuntu’ in particular? How can Ubuntu transform our ideas about justice? More generally, how can we meaningfully enter into conversations with views outside ‘mainstream’ political philosophy? This pre-HDCA conference event brings established and emerging African scholars together to introduce and explore key concepts in African Philosophies as they apply to issues of justice. Papers explore themes such as: human rights, corporate social responsibility, health, rectification, corruption, economic distribution, and others. As such, the event provides opportunities for capability scholars and practitioners to learn about these ideas, and to reflect on the way that these ideas are able to transform capability scholarship and practice. Confirmed Keynotes: Prof Thaddeus Metz (UJ), Dr Motsamai Molefe (UKZN), Dr Uchenna Okeja (Rhodes). Invited Graduate Students: Motlatsi Khosi (UNISA), Khali Mofuoa (UJ), Wade Seale (UCT), Tony Shabangu (UJ), Tlhogi Swaratlhe (UJ).
Register here: https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/engaging-with-african-philosophy-ubuntu-and-justice-tickets-33205849590/amp
Contact: K.Watene@massey.ac.nz; George.Hull@uct.ac.za

In this workshop we will explore the value of using participatory video as a methodology to study the expansion of capabilities in educational contexts, both for young people and adults. In order to do this, we will conduct a 4 hour workshop in which the participants will identify educational capabilities related to their participation in the HDCA conference. These capabilities will be the main themes of the videos that will be planned, filmed and screened during the workshop by the participants themselves. We will use mobile phones as digital tools. During the screening, a capability approach analysis of the content of the videos and of the process itself will be conducted using the main elements of the approach.
Sandra Boni – aboni@dpi.upv.es

Tickets are not refundable (unless Robben Island cancels the ferries).

Every participant is responsible for booking their tickets and arriving at the meeting place at the Westin on time (at 9:45 am).

Please note that the ferries tend to sell out so those interested are urged to purchase tickets as soon as possible. There are three ferries per day, so be sure that you are buying the 11 am tour on 4 or 5 September (the afternoon trips can become extra windy, while the earlier tour will not leave much time to get everyone to the right place at the right time).

We will meet at the conference hotel (The Westin) and take a shuttle bus together to the V&A Waterfront. Details about the cost thereof will be confirmed once we have an idea of numbers. (Since the hotel is close to the waterfront, we do not expect that it will cost too much per person on top of your tour tickets.)
We are coordinating only the meeting point (at the Westin) and transportation to the Waterfront where we catch the ferry. Everything else is organized by the official Robben Island tour and ferry company.

Once you have bought tickets for the tour, you must RSVP hereso that we can organize a shuttle for the right number of people. You can bring cash for your portion of the shuttle cost that day (we will let you know how much ahead of time).

The session intends to facilitate an exchange of views between scholars and practitioners on the instrumental role of participatory research methodologies within development projects, especially concerning youth and education. The discussion will be guided by the following questions: How can participatory research be used to design development programmes concerning youth and education? How can participatory research be used to evaluate development programmes concerning youth and education? How can development programs enhance participatory research? What can practitioners expect from researchers and vice versa? The roundtable will involve the following external speakers: Vivienne Bozalek, Director of Teaching and Learning at the University of the Western Cape. Her areas of expertise include the social justice and the political ethics of care perspectives, innovative pedagogical approaches, including the use of educational technologies, feminist and participatory research methodologies and critical family studies. Ronald Wesso (TBC), Research and Policy Lead at Oxfam South Africa. He has worked as an activist researcher on land and agrarian studies, and before that, democracy and public power in order to support struggles for progressive social change. He has also been involved in various initiatives to build autonomous movements of the poor. Joanna Wheeler, Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Political Studies, University of the Western Cape. She is researcher, facilitator and trainer in participatory processes, including creative storytelling approaches, with a commitment to increasing the voices of those less heard through citizen action. She is also Founder and Director of Transformative Story.
Caterina Arciprete – caterina.arciprete@unifi.it

Complexity and method: bridging the divide
(Time and place to be determined)
In this workshop we will explore how to use complex systems approaches to understand and engage with ‘wicked’ policy problems, such as food insecurity, income inequality or poor health. In order to do this it will start with an overview of complexity theory and its implications for the social sciences. Included will be a discussion of how complexity theory can enrich applications of the Capabilities Approach in the real world. We will then cover a range of practical tools to assist researchers and practitioners in operationalising complexity, drawing on Luke Craven’s work on food insecurity. Finally, we will split into small groups, where workshop participants will discuss their work-in-progress, and engage in a discussion about they could effectively incorporate complexity into their own projects.
Luke Craven – luke.craven@sydney.edu.au

Registration, fees & scholarships, visa information

While formal registration for the conference has closed, we are now offering a day registration rate to individuals and groups who are not able to attend the whole conference but would like to attend some sessions. The rate for individual academics/professionals is R1100 per day.

Early registration rates are available through July 10. Students and scholars from low- and mid-income countries will pay a significantly reduced registration fee, as the following schedule indicates:

Professional, high-income country, early ($380)

Professional, high-income country, standard ($430)

Professional, low- or mid-income country, early ($190)

Professional, low- or mid-income country, standard ($240)

Student, high-income country, early ($190)

Student, high-income country, standard ($240)

Student, low- or mid-income country, early ($90)

Student, low- or mid-income country, standard ($130)

Please note that the registration fee includes a year’s membership in the HDCA. As in previous years, the HDCA aims to make partial financial assistance available to those who need it. Details to be made available in due course on this page.

Scholarships for young scholars (35 or under)

Applications for partial funding are accepted from participant’s who have an average review score of 80 or above. Due to limited funds the HDCA places a cap on scholarships of $1,000 with average funding in the region of $500. Applicants should send:

You may also visit the nearest South African Embassy or Consulate in your country for more information.

Immigration law in South Africa also requires all visitors to have a passport with a minimum of one empty page. The passport must also be valid for a period of at least 6 months after the intended date of departure. All visa applicants to South Africa must have proof of funds to support their stay in South Africa and satisfy immigration offers at the port of entry.

Visitors who have a visa requirement in their country should visit the nearest South African Embassy or Consulate in their country for visa application. For a full list of all South African embassies and consulates you may visit: www.dirco.gov.za/webmissions/index.html

Invitation Letters

If required, a letter of invitation can be organized on request from the Conference Organizers. All requests are to be sent to hdca.conference@uct.ac.za

It should be noted that this letter of invitation is not a commitment of financial support. The letter of invitation will only be sent to registered delegates who have paid the stipulated registration fee.

Accommodations

HDCA 2017 CONFERENCE

WESTIN HOTEL

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

The organisers of this year’s conference have selected The Westin Hotel, Cape Town (http://www.westincapetown.com/) as the primary venue for the conference. The Westin Hotel boasts the largest conferencing facility in Cape Town, making it the logical choice for the organisers. An added bonus is the location: situated in the CBD, the hotel is adjacent to the the Cape Town International Convention Centre and a shuttle drive away from the busy Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. The latter is the site of the gateway to Robben Island, where the late president Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for most of his life.

In addition to the Westin Hotel, the organisers have also arranged preferential rates at the establishments below. Note that the Protea Hotel and All Africa House are located in suburbs outside the city. Transport will be arranged for participants staying here to and from the conference each day.

PROTEA HOTEL, MOWBRAYBook your group rate for HDCA
This historical Cape Dutch Manor house is centrally located adjacent to the N2 highway, Just 11 minutes from the Newlands Rugby Stadium and only 15 minutes from Cape Town International Airport. Connecting business travelers to a vast commercial office complex that houses numerous national and multinational companies, all whilst escaping to a view of beautiful lush gardens. And while the current manor house dates back to approximately 1880, records indicate that the site has been settled since the 1660s. The hotel will offer GUESTS a comfortable, period sensitive lounge in which to socialise or hold meetings, as well as breakfast and a swimming pool at which to relax. Attractions in close proximity to the Protea Hotel Cape Town Mowbray are Table Mountain, Canal Walk Shopping Centre, Camps Bay and Clifton Beaches, V&A Waterfront, Cavendish Square, Cape Town Convention Centre, Green Point Urban Park, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden and the Riverclub Golf Range.
Single en-suite rooms, including breakfast, are available at the reduced rate of R1,100.00/night (approx. 83 US $).Please quote booking reference HDCA2017 to receive the preferential rates.

ALL AFRICA HOUSE, UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN(http://www.accommodation.uct.ac.za/aah/about/welcome/)
All Africa House was created as a concrete expression of the University of Cape Town’s mission to be “an outstanding teaching and research university, educating for life and addressing the challenges that face our society.”
Expanding on this key aspect, it is central to UCT’s mission to “recognise our location in Africa and our historical context, claim our place in the international community of scholars, and strive for inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration and synergy”. This spacious, modern complex is set against the spectacular backdrop of Table Mountain.
A range of rooms and suites, ranging from R500.00 – R1,100.00/night (40 – 83 US $) are available. These rates include breakfast. All Africa House is situated on UCT’s Middle Campus in Rondebosch.
Please send a request for a booking to cally.dewaal@uct.ac.za stating clearly that your booking is related to the HDCA conference.

If you have registered for the 2017 summer school and are interested in keeping costs down by sharing accommodation during your stay in Cape Town please contact Madhulika Sahoo with your details (madhulika.sahoo@hotmail.co.uk.) Madhulika is a student who is attending the 2017 summer school who has offered to facilitate sharing contacts with those interested in sharing accommodation. Please note that the HDCA takes no responsibility for any arrangements you make in this regard.

Venue and attractions

The organisers wish to provide an explanation of the venue choice for this big international event. Ordinarily, the HDCA’s annual conferences are held at universities, during their mid-term or annual breaks. When the bid to host the 2017 conference was awarded, the conference organisers booked venues at UCT. However, one of the consequences of the 2016 student protests was the shifting of the academic calendar, and all non-teaching related venue bookings being de-prioritised in favour of lectures. Given the large numbers that the conference is required to accommodate (350 indivuals in plenary and 11 breakaway sessions), and the timing of the change in the academic calendar, the organisers were unable to secure sufficient parallel venues or a suitable large plenary venue at the other universities in the Western Cape. Moreover, by the time the new term dates were made available, it was too late to secure the other commercial venue that would have been able to accommodate the need for 11large breakaway rooms and one large meeting room – the Westin is in fact one of two facilities in the Western Cape that can accommodate the conference numbers. As a result the conference is being held at the Westin Hotel in Cape Town, and the irony associated with this has not gone unnoticed, given that the theme of the conference is “Challenging Inequalities: Human Development and Social Change”.

From the draft programme you may also note that the names of several of the hotel’s meeting rooms are associated with some individuals who may be considered to be strongly implicated in South Africa’s colonial history. The conference hosts are engaging the hotel about this. The continued use of such names by organisations throughout South Africa highlights the importance of the debates and struggles in this country about decolonization. We have provided alternative names for the venues in the programme based on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Transportation

Information to come

HDCA Summer School

Human Development and Capability Association Summer School

University of Cape Town , Sunday 3 and Monday 4 September, 2017

Ahead of the annual HDCA Conference taking place in Cape Town this year there will be a two-day HDCA Summer School aimed at doctoral students working with the capability approach. It will take place over two full days at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, on Sunday 3 and Monday 4 September 2017. The aim of the summer school is to introduce students to foundational concepts within the capability approach as well some core themes where current theoretical and empirical work is taking place. Participants will also have an opportunity to get group feedback on their research projects from senior scholars in the field. This year we are delighted to be welcoming Melanie Walker, Mario Biggeri and Alejandra Boni as guest tutors on our summer school teaching team.

Applications to the 2017 Summer School are now closed. Acceptance letters have been sent.

If you have registered for the 2017 summer school and are interested in keeping costs down by sharing accommodation during your stay in Cape Town please contact Madhulika Sahoo with your details (madhulika.sahoo@hotmail.co.uk.) Madhulika is a student who is attending the 2017 summer school who has offered to facilitate sharing contacts with those interested in sharing accommodation. Please note that the HDCA takes no responsibility for any arrangements you make in this regard.

2016 HDCA Conference – Tokyo, Japan

HDCA2016 Conference

“Capability and Diversity in a Global Society”

September 1–3, 2016

Tokyo, Japan

Hosted by

The 2016 HDCA Program Committee cordially invites scholars, government policy makers, practitioners and other interested parties from all over the world to participate in the 2016 HDCA conference. Original empirical research, theoretical issues, case-studies or reports of experiences, or findings from major research projects, and book panels relevant to conference theme or more broadly related to human development/capabilities approach will be presented.

Please use the conference menu on the right to find more information. The conference organizers can be contacted at HDCA@ier.hit-u.ac.jp.

Privacy Policy

HDCA respects your privacy and will not sell or share information collected. Our payments are processed through First Data which is a secure payment processor for businesses.

Refund Policy

Conference registration and payment will open up to 5 months in advance of the conference and all registration must be complete by the start of conference. Registration will close once all available spots have been filled. Once registration is complete, your payment will be processed. You will receive email with confirmation. All registrations are final. No refunds will be issued, unless there are extenuating circumstances (e.g. serious illness or death of close relative). There are no refunds for payments of membership dues.

Conference Theme

“Capability and Diversity in a Global Society”

The capability approach is a widely-used framework for evaluating human well-being, freedom, and development. It has been developed partly because traditional approaches focusing on income or utility don’t adequately capture the diverse, plural, or multidimensional nature of human conditions and development experiences.

By selecting ‘diversity’ as an overall theme for the HDCA 2016 Conference, we want to exhibit the power and scope of the capability approach to describe, assess, and promote human development and social justice in an increasingly globalized world where people’s circumstances and values are vastly different and rapidly changing.

As a concept originally developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, capability is defined to reflect diversity and freedom of human experiences, and so in the set of valuable functionings that people have reason to choose. We have seen many examples of research, using various methods, to try to capture diverse aspects of human capability and development for specific purposes in different contexts. One of the main goals of the HDCA 2016 Conference will be to assemble and compare a variety of those attempts in different fields, disciplines, and regions, in order to shed light on the benefits of, and challenges for, such attempts.

Human diversity not only highlights the scope and versatility of the capability approach but poses many theoretical, conceptual, philosophical, and methodological challenges. For example, how can diversity meet the demands of impartiality required for our ideas of justice? Can we formulate a broad and inclusive framework to encompass diverse capability indexes? How can different methods better represent diverse characteristics and policy objectives of different societies?

The capability approach itself is still evolving and open to extensions, modifications, criticisms, and revisions. We would like to invite scholars, policy-makers, practitioners, and students who are working on the frontiers of this expanding field of research. Anyone new to HDCA is also more than welcome, as we appreciate diversity of participants in terms of research topics and methods, professions, and regions. It will be an exciting opportunity for all of us.

Ravi Kanbur is T. H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, and Professor of Economics at Cornell University. He has served on the senior staff of the World Bank, including as Resident Representative in Ghana, Chief Economist of the Africa Region, and Principal Adviser to the Chief Economist of the World Bank. He has also served as Director of the World Bank’s World Development Report. He is Past-President of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, Chair of the Board of UNU-WIDER, Co-Chair of the Scientific Council of the International Panel on Social Progress, a member of the High Level Advisory Council of the Climate Justice Dialogue, a member of the OECD High Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance, and a member of the Core Group of the Commission on Global Poverty. The honors he has received include an Honorary Professorship at the University of Warwick

Rima Khalaf is Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. During her tenure as Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), from 2000 to 2006, she launched pioneering projects to promote good governance, human rights and human development in Arab States, receiving international honors, including the Prince Claus Award and the King Hussein Leadership Prize. Prior to joining UNDP, she held many senior policymaking positions in Jordan, including Minister for Industry and Trade (1993-1995), Minister for Planning (1995-1998) and Deputy Prime Minister (1999-2000). As head of the ministerial economic team, she led the drive to reform and modernize the economy while simultaneously implementing a social package for building human capabilities, alleviating poverty and strengthening the social safety net.

Martha Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. From 1986 to 1993, she was a research advisor at the World Institute for Development Economics Research, Helsinki, a part of the United Nations University. She has chaired the American Philosophical Association’s Committee on International Cooperation, the Committee on the Status of Women, and the Committee for Public Philosophy. She has received honorary degrees from fifty colleges and universities in the world. Her books include WOMEN AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (2000), HIDING FROM HUMANITY (2004), FRONTIERS OF JUSTICE (2006), CREATING CAPABILITIES (2012), POLITICAL EMOTIONS (2013), and ANGER AND FORGIVENESS (2016). Among her awards are the Prince of Asturias Prize in the Social Sciences in 2012, and the Kyoto Prize in 2016.

Kaushik Basu is Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank. Prior to this, he served as Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India and is currently on leave from Cornell University where he is Professor of Economics and the C. Marks Professor of International Studies. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and has received India’s Padma Bhushan award, the inaugural Professor A.L. Nagar Fellow award, as well as the National Mahalanobis Memorial award. His academic contributions span development and welfare economics, industrial organization, and game theory.

Kotaro Suzumura is Professor Emeritus of Hitotsubashi University, Professor Emeritus and an Honorary Fellow of Waseda University, a member of the Japan Academy, and a Fellow of the Econometric Society. He has served as President of the Japanese Economic Association and President of the Society for Social Choice and Welfare. He edited Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare (Volumes 1 and 2) with Kenneth Arrow and Amartya Sen. He was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon for his academic contribution by the Government of Japan in 2004 and the Japan Academy Prize for his contribution to the non-consequentialist foundations of normative economics in 2006.

Amartya Sen is Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University and was until 2004 the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. Earlier on he was Professor of Economics at Jadavpur University Calcutta, the Delhi School of Economics, and the London School of Economics, and Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford University. He has served as President of the Econometric Society, the American Economic Association, the Indian Economic Association, and the International Economic Association. His awards include Bharat Ratna (India); Commandeur de la Legion d’Honneur (France); the National Humanities Medal (USA); Ordem do Merito Cientifico (Brazil); Honorary Companion of Honour (UK); Aztec Eagle (Mexico); Edinburgh Medal (UK); the George Marshall Award (USA); the Eisenhauer Medal (USA); and the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Sir Michael Marmot is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and Director of the Institute of Health Equity at University College London, and President of the World Medical Association for 2015-2016. Professor Marmot holds the Harvard Lown Professorship for 2014-2017 and is the recipient of the Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health 2015. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from 16 universities. He has led research groups on health inequalities for 40 years. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy, and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution for six years and in 2000 he was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen, for services to epidemiology and the understanding of health inequalities.

Conference Program

HDCA Tokyo 2016 Schedule (updated August 22- please see printed list of last minute changes, available in the registration room – 206 )

Pre-conference Events

Pre-conference events will take place on Wednesday, August 31. Please see the schedule below. All events are on the West Camputs

9:00 am-5:30 pm
Room 304, Lecture Building 1
Global justice, the capability approach, and social policyWith outset in Gillian Brock’s book Global Justice (OUP 2008), the Foundational Issues thematic group (FICA) will organize a pre-conference event on Brock’s cosmopolitan theory of global justice and related issues. The aim of the event is to consider how abstract discussions on global justice can translate into concrete policy advice, for example within a capability framework. In her book, Brock develops and defends a cosmopolitan account of global justice and shows how it can provide ample room for national self-determination and -governance while securing basic principles of justice. Brock has, both in her book as well as in subsequent work, applied her account of global justice to such policy issues as global poverty, taxation reform, nationalism, health justice, work exploitation, and responsibility. In the event, we will take up and discuss these relationships between global justice and concrete issues of global and national policy. Download the description of the workshop here, or contact Morten Fibieger Byskov (m.byskov@uu.nl) and Rebecca Gutwald (r.gutwald@lmu.de) for more information.Please register using this link: https://goo.gl/x13gcQ

10:00 am -12:00 pm
Room 301, Lecture Building 1
Measuring Capabilities in educational contexts (workshop)In this workshop we will explore measurement of capabilities using different methodological approaches. In order to do this, we will present a case-study of intercultural education in a higher education environment where potential expansion of capabilities might be happening. We will then split into three groups, with each discussing how capability measurement can be carried out from the following perspectives: a) quantitative, b) qualitative, and c) participatory, trying to underline strengths and weakness of each. To conclude, we will have a plenary discussion on how the three approaches can be used / complement each other in order to arrive at a detailed picture of capabilities enhancement. (See related event and sign-up information below.)

2:00-4:00 pm

Field trip to Waseda University

We will meet with staff (and students) in the School of International Liberal Studies (SILS) in Waseda university to discuss internationalisation and diversity in HE settings in Japan. We will travel there by public transport from Hitotsubashi.

If you are interested in participating in either/ or both of the above events, please contact the workshop organisers, Sandra Boni <aboni@dpi.upv.es > and Veronica Crosbie <veronica.crosbie@dcu.ie> by Friday 26th August at the latest.

1:00-2:00 pm
Room 307, Lecture Building 2The Measurement of CapabilitiesDownload the PowerPoint presentation hereIn this workshop, Professor Paul Anand will provide an overview of the capabilities measurement project which has sought to develop full and explicit measures of capabilities for use in household, national and other surveys. The workshop will give a brief philosophical and institutional background to the approach before highlighting the theoretical structure developed by Sen (1985) which Anand and colleagues have shown to be fully ‘workable’ – as Rawls questioned the approach. Following Sen’s approach we discuss measures of functioning, states, happiness and most importantly capabilities including non-cognitive traits. The project has covered applications to working age adults, the cost of domestic violence, the situation of Irish travellers, the consequences of disability (mobility impairment) contributing to the ‘Beyond GDP’ work of the OECD and in more recent work has started to highlight the value of social resources and behavioural insights for understanding how entitlements might be achieved.
The workshop will also draw on recent project work for the UNDP, argue that subjective measures are indeed also valuable in understanding human development. We conclude that one of the many values of the approach is that it provides a structure for understanding how wellbeing, quality of life or human flourishing is produced and distributed.
Key Readings
Anand P 2016 Happiness Explained, Oxford, Oxford University Press Anand, P., Hunter, G., Carter, I., Dowding, K., Guala, F. and Van Hees, M., 2009. The development of capability indicators. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 10(1), pp.125-152.
For more information, please contact Paul Anand at paul.anand@open.ac.uk. Pre-registration is not required.

2:00-4:30 pm
Room 308, Lecture Building 2
UNDP Pre-Conference Workshop: Teaching Human Development in Universities and BeyondLead Organiser: Jon Hall, The Human Development Report Office, UNDP
This workshop will be of particular interest to those actively engaged in teaching human development and the capability approach. It will also be of interest to individuals thinking about introducing human development courses in their institutions and organisations.

The Human Development Report Office at UNDP wishes to help support human development thinking and practices around the world. One way to do this is through educational courses including those which can help universities to encourage students to think critically about different approaches to human development. In addition, the learning resources being developed by UNDP aim to support those engaging with government departments, policy-makers and/or NGOs. UNDP has prepared a module entitled, “Introduction to Human Development” and it will soon be freely available online –in several languages – for teachers to use. This session will introduce the new UNDP module and materials with the aim of gaining feedback for future development and dissemination. UNDP is particularly keen to discuss how this resource and others could be made more useful to members of the HDCA and beyond. We will also discuss future priorities in developing additional material and resources and whether and how HDCA members could become more closely involved.

Contact the HDCA Education Officer, Caroline Sarojini Hart c.hart@sheffield.ac.uk to sign up for this event. Free for delegates who have registered for the main HDCA 2016 conference.

Registration, fees & scholarships

Registration is closed.

Students and scholars from low- and mid-income countries will pay a significantly reduced registration fee, as the following schedule indicates:

Professional, high-income country, early ($380)

Professional, high-income country, standard ($430)

Professional, low- or mid-income country, early ($190)

Professional, low- or mid-income country, standard ($240)

Student, high-income country, early ($190)

Student, high-income country, standard ($240)

Student, low- or mid-income country, early ($90)

Student, low- or mid-income country, standard ($130)

Please note that the registration fee includes a year’s membership in the HDCA. As in previous years, the HDCA aims to make partial financial assistance available to those who need it.

Accommodations

It is recommended that conference participants stay in Tachikawa and the nearby area, which will be convenient for transportation to the conference venue, Hitotsubashi University in Kunitachi, Tokyo. Palace Hotel Tachikawa (conference dinner site) and other hotels nearby are now available at a special rate for conference participants. A summary list of hotels is below, and more information is available on the website of our official travel agent, Nissin Travel Service, at: https://nissin-trvl.jp/hdca2016/. Reservations can be made online or by emailing Nissin Travel at hdca2016@nissin-trvl.co.jp.

Blocks of hotel rooms have been reserved at special rates, but numbers are limited so it is recommended to book early!

For those looking for less expensive accommodations, some additional options can be found here. Please note that these options are provided for the convenience of attendees and are not endorsed by the conference organizers.

Venue, attractions and optional excursion

Hitotsubashi University is located in the western suburb of Tokyo, in a city called Kunitachi. The city has a history of hosting the university for nearly 90 years, with an estimated population of around 75,000, surrounded by rich nature.

Yakatabune is a traditional house-shaped cruise ship that has been continuously used since the 17th century. Passengers enjoy a dinner of tempura and sashimi while enjoying breathtaking views of Tokyo landmarks. Limit of 160 passengers.

Transportation

Take JR Chuo Line (中央線) bound for Takao（高尾）direction, to KUNITACHI (国立) station. Please note: if you get on a special rapid service train, “TOKUBETSU KAISOKU (特別快速)”, make sure to change at KOKUBUNJI (国分寺) station to a rapid service train “KAISOKU” (快速) , as the Tokubetsu Kaisoku DOES NOT STOP at Kunitachi station.

Take Tokyo Monorail to HAMAMATSUCHO (浜松町) station, change to JR Yamanote (山手線) Line in direction to Tokyo. From Tokyo station, take JR Chuo Line to Kunitachi station. Commuting time: Approximately 1.5 hours.

Take Keikyu Airport Line (京急空港線）to SHINAGAWA (品川）station, change to JR Yamanote Line bound for Shibuya（渋谷）/Shinjuku（新宿）direction. Get off at Shinjuku station, change to JR Chuo Line to Kunitachi station.

Take Limousine Bus service to PALACE HOTEL TACHIKAWA (パレスホテル立川), departing 3 services in the morning, 6 services in the afternoon. [Bus stop #11 or 2 at the Terminal 1; # 6 or 16 at the Terminal 2; # 4 at the Terminal 3] From Tachikawa station, take JR Chuo Line bound for Tokyo to Kunitachi station, or use taxi service to the campus.

About 10 minutes’ on foot from the SOUTH exit of JR Kunitachi station. Walk straight down the main avenue, on your right sidewalk. The conference will be held on the west side of our campus (on your right from the Kunitachi station.)

[By Taxi]
If you are taking a taxi from Tachikawa station to Hitotsubashi University, please show the map below to the driver. It will cost around 1,000-2,000 JPY.

[By Train]
Take Chuo-Line train in the direction to Tokyo from Tachikawa JR (Japan Railway) station and get off at the next station, Kunitachi. It is about 3 min. train ride. Please note that ONLY “Rapid” (Kaisoku in Japanese) train will stop at Kunitachi, so do not take any other special rapid trains.

To use the train, go to the central concourse of Tachikawa station and buy a ticket using the machines (you will need Japanese yen or a credit card with the chip and PIN). Alternatively, you could go to the ticket office and purchase a prepaid plastic card called SUICA. For further details of this SUICA card, please refer to: http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/pass/suica.html

The round-trip fare from Tachikawa to Kunitachi is 280JPY. You shall insert your train ticket through the gate machines (or tap your SUICA card over the machine) when entering your departure station and when leaving your arrival station.

Hitotsubashi University is about 10 min. walk straight down the main avenue, on your right sidewalk from the south exit of the Kunitachi station. The conference will be held on the west side of our campus (on your right from the Kunitachi station).

Campus Address
2-1 Naka, Kunitachi, Tokyo 186-8601, Japan

HDCA Summer School

Summer School on Capability Approach – Tokyo
29-30 August 2016

***Registration is closed and we are no longer taking names for the waiting list***

Prior to the main conference, the HDCA will be holding a two-day HDCA Summer School primarily aimed at PhD graduate students working with the capability approach. It will take place at Hitotsubashi University, in Tokyo, on Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 August 2016. The aim of the summer school is to introduce students to foundational concepts within the capability approach as well some core themes where current theoretical and empirical work is taking place. Participants will also have an opportunity to get group feedback on their research projects. Spaces are limited to 20 students.

2015 HDCA Conference – Washington, D.C.

The 2015 HDCA Program Committee cordially invites scholars, government policy makers, practitioners and other interested parties from all over the world to participate in the 2015 HDCA conference. Original empirical research, theoretical issues, case-studies or reports of experiences, or findings from major research projects, and book panels relevant to conference theme or more broadly related to human development/capabilities approach will be presented.

Please use the conference menu on the right to find more information. The conference organizers can be contacted at HDCA@Georgetown.edu.

Decisions on submissions have been communicated by email. Submitters may check the status of their submissions (and, if applicable, obtain copies of invitation letters) by logging back into ConfTool at www.conftool.pro/hdca2015.

Conference Theme

“Capabilities on the Move: Mobility and Aspirations”

Human development has in large part been a story of mobility. Geographically, people move to seek a better job or a better life, and when they succeed, they move up the socioeconomic ladder, whether as assessed by income or by capabilities. People’s aspirations fuel these efforts; yet aspirations can be quashed by poverty, inequality, or social exclusion. Mobility can also pose challenges to human development, ranging from overcrowded cities to widening inequality, as some get left behind. Examining how mobility and aspirations interact provides an important window on the dynamics of human development.

Upward mobility is a dynamic counterpart of equality, offering the possibility that those born in poverty might escape it. Support for basic capabilities, especially in the areas of health and education, is essential to enabling such upward mobility. How do the aspirations of the poor and vulnerable figure into this process? How can their success in meeting them begin to match that of the rich and powerful? Long-entrenched cultural barriers often inhibit social and economic mobility and put in place a kind of social distance. This can make it hard for highly trained professionals, such as doctors, to work effectively with the poor and less educated. How can these barriers be overcome? And how can those who are relatively deprived and excluded be adequately protected against downward mobility resulting from inadequate social policies, war, ill health, educational deprivation, or even climate change?

Such evils and misfortunes spur much of the world’s geographic mobility. Among those forced to flee epidemics, economic crises, natural disasters, and human conflicts, the poor and vulnerable are disproportionately represented.How can the ideals of human development adequately reach the world’s millions of refugees? And as another billion of the world’s poor migrate voluntarily to cities, or to other countries, aspiring to improve their lot, how can their human development be adequately addressed? All around the world, migration to cities is putting huge strains on the infrastructure that is meant to provide sanitation, transportation, health, education, and personal safety, thus threatening basic capabilities even while holding out hope for them.

People’s aspirations, which can drive them to move, can be a powerful engine of development. Whether individuals’, families’, or communities’ pursuit of their aspirations translates into improvements in their capabilities and functionings, however, is a further question. Understanding people’s aspirations, and their capabilities to aspire, is crucial to understanding poverty and human development. Do we know how to encourage aspirations without setting people up for frustration? Where people’s aspirations are stunted by lack of opportunities, development will languish; but where people’s aspirations are frustrated by barriers to education or employment or needed health care, apathy and resentment may set in.

Importantly, people aspire to agency as well as to well-being. They seek an end to local oppressions. They seek democracy and liberty for their own nations, and a real voice for those nations in international forums. How can these agential aspirations—these political aspirations—be harnessed to promoting human development? At a more theoretical level, aspirations deserve study also because they represent a deeper layer of human psychology than is ordinarily captured by preference-based models.

The theme of mobility and aspirations, then, will provide an enriching way to focus on capability enhancement over time, one that will deepen the social, political, and psychological richness of the capability approach.

Call for Papers & deadlines

Important Deadlines– Submission of proposals: Closed on March 15th 2015Those concerned with obtaining visas to travel to the U.S. should please submit as soon as possible, however, as earlier submission will enable an earlier decision.

The HDCA conference aims to bring together people from all over the world from different disciplines and fields interested in the field of human development and the capabilities approach. Papers on the 2015 conference theme ‘aspirations and mobility’ may explore, amongst others, the following topics:

measuring social and economic mobility in a capability-based way

the effect of deprivation and vulnerability on aspirations

policies for securing capabilities (regarding health, education, etc.) as large numbers of people migrate to new cities

the capabilities of emigrating and immigrating and the corresponding rights

understanding the co-development of aspirations and capabilities

education as shaping aspirations

aspirations in childhood and youth and transitions to adulthood

frustrated aspirations as a driver of conflict

the aspirations of refugees

parental aspirations for their children and their effect on socioeconomic mobility

aspirations and the life course

theoretically modelling aspirations and their effect on behavior

the conditions under which socioeconomic mobility enhances equality and those under which it exacerbates inequality

identifying and overcoming barriers to mobility

securing the relatively deprived against downward mobility

aspiring to agency: grassroots movements and participatory politics

linking political aspirations to human development

the impact of migration on human development

migration and the post-2015 development agenda

gender differences in motivations for migration

achieving greater coherence between migration policy and development policy

the effect of social remittances on capabilities and aspirations

In addition to papers on the conference theme, papers on all core HDCA topics are welcome, including but not limited to:

philosophical and ethical foundations of the capability approach;

methodological issues in operationalizing the capability approach;

capability measurement and empirical analysis;

human rights and development; and

policy analysis and evaluation by reference to capabilities and agency

Notice: While the papers may come from any discipline and may be theoretical, applied, or policy-based, every paper must engage with, apply, extend, criticize, or offer insights specifically relevant to the capability approach and/or the human development paradigm. Since we expect a large number of submissions for this meeting in Washington, each person is limited to only one individual paper presentation and participation in only one panel presentation. (An individual may appear as a co-author on additional papers, but must not be the presenter of more than one paper of each of the two types.)

Human aspirations express people’s deepest hopes, revealing a psychology and a pattern of valuing that is richer and more complex than that of simple desires. Capturing this depth and subtlety of motivation and evaluation is a challenge for economic theory, for empirical understanding more generally, and for philosophical accounts that attempt to articulate our fundamental commitments to justice and human flourishing. Each of our distinguished symposiasts takes up this challenge in a distinctive sphere and in a distinctive way.

2. 2015 Amartya K. Sen Lecture

Friday 9/11, 10-11 amJames Heckman, Nobel Laureate in Economics (The University of Chicago)“Creating Flourishing Lives: The Dynamics of Capability Formation”

This lecture presents recent research on the economics of creating flourishing lives. The implications of this research for the design of effective policies are discussed.

3. 2015 Mahbub ul Haq Lecture

Friday 9/11, 5:15-6:15 pmErnesto Zedillo, Former President of Mexico (Yale University)“Tales from Latin America and Africa: Growing Policy Challenges at a Time of Vanishing Tailwinds”

This lecture will observe that the recent period of significant improvements in key social indicators in regions such as Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa have been driven, not exclusively but certainly significantly, both by better terms of trade and by the adoption of unprecedentedly effective social policies –like the conditional cash transfers programs. It will argue that such improvements, in the absence of more ambitious structural reforms, could stall or even reverse now that the commodity super-cycle is over, and that the impact of the innovative social programs either have entered their diminishing returns phase, in some cases, or, in others, are at risk of being interrupted or at least dwindling for fiscal reasons.

International migration and development intersect in many ways. The development process affects whether and how people move across international borders; migration in turn affects the development of both source and destination countries. In this session, four prominent experts in migration and development will discuss the interconnections between migration and development, its relevance to the post 2015 development agenda, and ways to enhance the human development and capabilities of migrants, their countries of origin and countries of destination.

The panelists include:

Hein de Haas, Professor of Sociology, University of Amsterdam’s (UvA) Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

Dilip Ratha, Director, Lead economist and Manager of the Migration and Remittances Unit, World Bank. Founder and Head of the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD), World Bank

Saturday 9/12, 4-5 pmSeyla Benhabib, Professor of Political Science and Philosophy (Yale University)“Democratic Iterations and Cosmopolitan Human Rights: A New Paradigm for the Dialectic of Law and Politics”

This lecture examines how we can interpret the relationship between democratic sovereignty and transnational legal order in a new age. Critiquing the “new sovereigntism” and arguing that transnational human rights norms strengthen rather than weaken democratic sovereignty, this lecture will challenge us to think beyond the binarisms of the cosmopolitan versus the civic republican; democratic versus the international and transnational; democratic sovereignty versus human rights law.

7.World Bank Panel

Sunday 9/13, 10-11:30 am
“The Role of Governments and Markets in Promoting Mobility and Ending Poverty”

In 2013, the World Bank Group (WBG) declared two goals: ending extreme poverty by 2030 and achieving shared prosperity. This session will discuss the roles the government and the market will have to play to achieve these goals. What are the policies that can facilitate upward mobility among the poor? How much should we rely on growth and how much on targeted interventions? Empirical findings suggest that economic growth raises the incomes of the poor, but is that enough? In this session, leaders from the WBG will highlight some of the ongoing research related to the above questions, and will also introduce the audience to the open questions and challenges which the WBG currently confronts.

Organized by the Children and Youth thematic group, this workshop is an opportunity to meet in person with group members and others to share methods, information, and ideas for improving research. Research methods for research on/with children and young adults will be discussed (both qualitative/participatory and quantitative). The workshop will be divided in two parts: In the first part, participants will work together in small groups and will focus on critical aspects of their research on/with children; in the second part, each small group will present their results to the other participants.

To participate, please send an email explaining your interest, as well as a brief bio, to caterina.arciprete@unifi.it. Please note that the workshop is limited to 40 participants.

Organizers: Mario Biggeri, Caroline Hart and Caterina Arciprete

Steven Radelet talk: “The Great Surge: The Ascent of the Developing World”

Sept. 10, 9:00 am – 10:30 am
Copley Formal Lounge

We live today at a time of the greatest development progress among the global poor in world history. Never before have so many people, in so many countries, made so much progress, in so short a time in so many dimensions of development. Since the early 1990s more than one billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty, average incomes in developing countries have nearly doubled, child mortality has fallen sharply, life expectancy has grown, war and violence have declined, millions more girls are in school, and democracy—often fragile and imperfect—has become the norm. In this talk Steven Radelet will discuss what has happened and how this progress can be sustained and expanded to those still left behind.

Professor Radelet holds the Donald F. McHenry Chair in Global Human Development at Georgetown and was formerly the Chief Economist at USAID and Senior Advisor on Development to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This talk is a preview of his book on this topic, forthcoming from Simon & Schuster.

This event takes stock of the current state of global justice theorizing. The program begins with Leif Wenar presenting from his new book Blood Oil which exemplifies engagement with empirical evidence. Other scholars will present work taking new directions in global justice theorizing. For more information, and to register, please go to: https://eventbrite.co.uk/event/16693512746/

Sponsored by the Ethics and Development, Human Rights, and Sustainability Thematic Groups and the International Development Ethics Association. The event will consist of two panels; the first panel focuses on Human Rights as LGBTQI Rights internationally, as United States immigration issue, and finally within Washington, D.C. The second panel looks at Sustainability issues within Washington, D.C.

The workshop provides an overview of research conducted during a fifteen year period that has sought to develop questionnaires, datasets and analyses that illustrate an explicit and full operationalization of Sen’s (1985) original version of the theory. More specifically we shall look at research developed with teams of philosophers, social scientists and economists to operationalize Sen’s core relations and concepts and we shall see how Nussbaum’s list can be adopted for use within the Senian framework. This may be of interest both to academics who are looking for explicit measures of capabilities as well as development practitioners in policy and practice who wish to use data on capabilities to identify needs or evaluate interventions. In the session, participants move from reasons why utilitarianism is a limited ethical framework to developing an understanding of how the capability approach now includes alternative tools that are genuinely ‘workable’ – see for example Anand et al (2009). In addition, we note applications ranging from clinical trials in Oxford to work with marginalised people in Ireland that promise to deepen understanding of human development whilst extending the reach of our approach.

Rajiv Shah (USA) served as Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from January 2010 to February 2015, advancing its mission of ending extreme poverty and promoting resilient, democratic societies. He pioneered new public-private partnerships, catalyzed scientific innovation and enlisted the private sector and Congressional leaders of both parties to join in this cause. He also led the U.S. Government’s humanitarian response to catastrophic crises around the world, including the Haiti earthquake, Typhoon Haiyan and the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Previously, he served as Under Secretary and Chief Scientist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Prior to that, he spent eight years at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from its inception, where he led efforts in global health, agriculture, and financial services.

LUNCH12:15 pm-1:15 pm
Lunch will be provided free of charge to those attending the pre-conference events.

This workshop will bring together scholars and practitioners who have been working on health and disability issues in relation to the human development and capability approach.

This workshop will be a unique opportunity for participants to discuss their works in progress or planned work on health and disability. Each participant will be given the opportunity to present a relevant project and to receive feedback from other participants.

In order to register for the workshop, please email Francis Terpening (frant@upenn.edu).

Frances Julia Stewart is a world-renowned development economist who directed the Department for International Development at Oxford University and then the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE) there; she remains an advisor to the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative. She was president of the HDCA 2008-2010. She has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Sussex, the 2013 Leontief prize for advancing the frontiers of economic thought from Tufts University, and the 2009 Mahbub ul Haq award for lifetime achievement in promoting human development from the United Nations Development Programme.

This workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to meet others interested in the field of education ahead of the main HDCA conference.

In particular this workshop will explore the opportunities and challenges of applying a capability approach to researching and understanding educational matters. The scope of educational matters may encompass formal and informal teaching and learning opportunities across the life course as well as policy in all its guises. We are interested in sharing experiences of developing research strategies, questions and methods in ways that draw upon, or reflect, a capability paradigm.

You do not need to be an active researcher to attend this workshop. However, we welcome proposals from individuals or groups who wish to present or discuss their work in this arena.

This will be a discussion led by members of the Native American Students’ Council of Georgetown University, who will provide an overview of American Indian life on reservations with a particular focus on youth.

In the morning, there will be a visit to the National Museum of the American Indian (http://nmai.si.edu/) including the featured exhibition: Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations. Please meet at the south entrance of the museum at 9:45 am.

Please contact the organizers if you plan to participate in the discussion and/or museum visit.

HDRO Panel: Human Development at a Crossroad – Revisiting the Concept and the Measurement

Sept. 10, 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Copley Formal Lounge

Human Development Reports have been published near annually since 1990, addressing development issues and challenges ranging from globalization to cultural diversity, from economic growth to environmental sustainability, from democracy to climate change. The time has come to revisit the simple but powerful basic notion of human development – a process and outcome of enlarging people’s choices. It is also time to reflect on how we continue to measurement of human progress.

There are issues and aspects which till now remain unresolved, unanswered and unvisited. For example, the human development notion focuses on individual choices, but the issue of collective choices was never addressed. How does the society make trade-offs? Similarly, there is a hierarchy among choices and there is a prioritization at individual and societal levels. How does the human development concept deal with these?

Lead speaker: Dr. Selim Jahan, Director of the UNDP Human Development Report Office (HDRO), since September 2014. He earlier contributed to nine HDRs. From 2002-2014 he served as Director of the UNDP Poverty Division.

Registration, fees & scholarships

We have reached our registration limit and registration for the 2015 HDCA conference is now closed.

Scholars and students from low- and mid-income countries will pay a significantly reduced registration fee. As in previous years, the HDCA also aims to make partial financial assistance available to these two groups. For this meeting, Georgetown University has agreed to double the total amount available for scholarships by offering a matching amount. Information about how to apply for scholarship support will be send to submitters shortly after the submission deadline. For further information about scholarships, see below.

Registration rates(*Early bird rates available through July 10, 2015. Standard rates in effect as of July 11, 2015)

Professional, high-income country, early* ($375)

Professional, high-income country, standard ($425)

Professional, low- or mid-income country, early* ($50)

Professional, low- or mid-income country, standard ($75)

Student, high-income country, early* ($200)

Student, high-income country, standard ($225)

Student, low- or mid-income country, early* ($30)

Student, low- or mid-income country, standard ($50)

Scholarships

Initial decisions on scholarships have been communicated by email. As announced, partial scholarships have been awarded to support attendance by participants whose paper is considered by the abstract reviewers to be of high quality and who would otherwise not be able to attend. In a second round, those who have been awarded scholarship in the first round are invited to demonstrate a need for further funding. To do so, they will need to provide supporting document from their institution, as priority will be given to those who have been able to secure additional funding from their own institution and/or outside sources. Priority will also be given to those who have not received a HDCA conference grant before. If you have any queries on the 2015 partial scholarship, please contact the HDCA treasurer Gareth Wall on wallgareth@gmail.com and include ‘HDCA 2015 partial scholarship query’ in the subject line.

Venue and nearby attractions

Georgetown University’s main campus, where the conference events will take place, is located in a quiet and historic riverfront corner of Washington, DC. Download a map of the campus here.

Plenary sessions will be held in Gaston Hall

Parallel sessions will be held at the university-owned Hotel and Conference Center

Accommodation & transportation

Discounted rates at the following hotels are still available for conference participants. The Georgetown University Conference Center and Hotel is at the conference venue. The remaining hotels, each within a half-hour walk of the conference venue, are also served by the University’s complimentary shuttle bus system. At each of the following hotels, a limited number of cots is available to serve as a bed for a third guest. Except at the Holiday Inn Georgetown, which charges a $15 fee, there is no charge for a cot. Cots should be requested in advance.

Travel to Georgetown is also supported by high-speed train. Acela Express offers hourly service downtown to downtown during peak morning and afternoon rush hours between New York, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia and other intermediate cities. More information is available on the Amtrak, Acela Express website: http://www.amtrak.com/acela-express-train.

Host Information / Committees

The 2015 HDCA conference is hosted by Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The organizers can be reached at HDCA@georgetown.edu.

Please see the menu on the right for information about the conference, or for the latest details, please visit http://www.hdca2014.org/.

Welcome!

The 2014 HDCA Program Committee cordially invites scholars, government policy makers, practitioners and other interested parties from all over the world to participate in the 2014 HDCA conference. Original empirical research, theoretical issues, case-studies or reports of experiences, or findings from major research projects, and book panels relevant to the 2014 theme, Human Development in Times of Crisis, or more broadly related to human development/capabilities approach will be presented.

2014 conference theme

Human Development in Times of Crisis: Renegotiating social justice

Over the past five years the world has experienced its worst economic crisis in decades. The ‘Great Recession’ has set back developmental progress in many countries. For industrialized countries in the Global North, many hard fought achievements with regard to social protections are being cut back affecting many people’s fundamental life prospects. Therefore, throughout the world, the crisis is not mainly a financial one; it is also a social and human crisis. The economic crisis has created a crisis of ideas about social justice and democracy.

The present conditions of advanced capitalism demand as well as offer opportunities for re-evaluating and reconceptualising ideas of human development and human security on many different levels. These ideas profoundly influenced by the capabilities approach have been conceptually appealing but only loosely linked to sound social theory, social-scientific analyses of institutions and political diagnoses.

The 2014 HDCA conference will aim to connect demands for programmatic conceptions and social analyses in order to assess the opportunities for more capability-enhancing projects and public policies. The aim is to help counter the developmental setbacks from the current crisis, and to enhance the quality of society and social justice. The conference will especially focus on the social causes of social inequality, social inclusion, and education – especially with respect to the life perspectives of (vulnerable) young people.

Call-for-papers & deadlines

Important deadlines:

Submission of proposals: March 22nd 2014

Announcement of acceptance/rejection: May 15th 2014

Registration with early–bird-fee: July 10th 2014

Submission full papers/posters to be included on the conf. CD: July 31st 2014

Special Topics of Interest:
The HDCA conference aims to bring together people from all over the world from different disciplines and fields interested in the field of human development and the capabilities approach. Papers on the 2014 conference may explore amongst others, the following topics:

Topic

Description

Policy analysis

Critical social policy, Social crisis, common good.

“Late” capitalism, social problems, participation.

Social inequality, poverty, social exclusion.

Welfare production, social organisations, social services.

Disadvantage, suffering, human security.

Social movements, social protest, dynamics of civic society.

Children – social beings and social becomings.

Programs of enhancing capabilities.

Theoretical developments of the capability approach

Theoretical developments and research methodology.

Social justice, equality, social inclusion.

Human flourishing, well-being, components of a good life.

Gender equality, feminist perspectives.

Bildung, education, agency.

Environmental and ecological justice, sustainable human development.

European challenges

European development, social quality, social cohesion.

Migration, transnational mobility, refugees.

Unemployment, marginalisation.

Social prejudice, discrimination, conflict.

Heterogeneity, diversity, disability.

Fragmentation of Europe: democracy and austerity.

Keynotes / plenaries

In addition to the Sen and Haq lectures, the conference will include the following keynote lectures:

Henry S. Richardson is a Professor at Georgetown University and a Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. Professor Richardson is also the President-elect of HDCA. He will give the HDCA Presidential address.

Rainer Forst is Professor of Political Theory and Philosophy at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt, Speaker of the Cluster of excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders” and Vice-Director of the Centre for Advanced Studies “Justitia Amplificata – Rethinking justice: Applied and Global”.

Jean-Michel Bonvin is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the Haute école de travail social et de la santé – EESP – of Lausanne. He also lectures in Public Administration at the University of Geneva. He is Chairman of the Swiss Association of Social Policy.

Kaushik Basu is Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank. He is Professor of Economics and C Marks Professor of International Studies, Cornell University. From December 2009 to July 2012 he served as the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Government of India at the Ministry of Finance.

Nussbaum Symposium

The hosts of the 2014 HDCA Conference together with the Department of Philosophy and History of Science of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens will organize a philosophical symposium in honor of Martha Nussbaum’s contribution to the human development debate and the capability approach.

Phillip Pettit is the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University. He works in moral and political theory and on background issues in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics. He is Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy and Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.

Professor Martha Nussbaum is one of the world’s foremost philosophers. She is best known for the development of the ‘capabilities approach’, an influential theory of social and global justice. She has written on a wide range of subjects including ethics, feminism, law and literature, and is regarded as a leading authority on ancient Greek and Roman philosophy.

Sen & Haq Lectures

The 2014 Amartya Sen Lecture will be given by Daron Acemoglu.He is Elisabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His fields of interest among others are political economy and development economics. He is a Fellow of the Bureau of Research and Economic Analysis in Development.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Sen will attend the lecture. The 1998 Nobel Prize winner is a leading figure in the field of development economics and has contributed significantly to the research on fundamental problems of welfare economics.

This year the Mahbub-ul-Haq Lecture will be given by Dame Barbara Mary Stocking. She was Chief Executive of OXFAM, UK, (2001-2012). In March 2013 she was elected as the fifth President of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge.

Pre-conference events

(Participation in the Education and Children’s Thematic Group workshops is limited – if interested, please contact Caroline Hart at cfsscr2@cam.ac.uk.
To register for the Health and Disability Workshop, contact Sophie Mitra at mitra@fordham.edu)

(Please use the World Bank classification of low, middle and high-income countries to determine your registration rate. (http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-classifications/country-and-lending-groups)

Accommodations

The conference will be held at the President Hotel in Athens. Accommodations are available at a reduced rate for conference participants. Please e-mail hdca@fairways.gr to book your reservations. Please note that there are a limited number of rooms available at these rates, and reservations will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Single room: 66 Euro (including taxes and American buffet breakfast)

Double room: 69 Euro (including taxes and American buffet breakfast)

Triple room: 91 Euro (including taxes and American buffet breakfast)

More information on accommodation and practicalities can be found on the conference website of the local organizer:

Sponsors/exhibition

The 2014 HDCA Conference aims to keep the participants’ fees as low as possible, so that all interested parties can participate. Therefore, the registration fees are not sufficient to fully fund the conference. We rely more than ever on promotions of companies and foundations. We are convinced that the theme of the conference attracts not only academic interest, but also that of the private sector and society as a whole. The question of human development in our times of crisis is one of the most important issues of the current decade.

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